The twentieth century produced one of the most audacious periods
in the history of art. One artist that has led that century's output,
and still remains to be challenged, is Pablo Picasso. Spanning an
impressive 70 plus years of work, and producing over 200,000 pieces,
Picasso has few if any rivals. Yet with such a prolific output there
was the women that loved him. Even at times more controversial than
the works he created, each romance offered the embattled artist
with a new vision and stance in his execution. Chronicling Picasso's
love interests into periods enhances and increases awareness of
the impression his output produced in the ninety-two years of his
life.
Ms. Khoholova had been an inspiring ballet dancer since she was
twenty in 1911. Studying under the famed Yevgenia Sokolova, at the
St. Petersburg studio, Olga Khoholova was a performer in high demand.
During her time before meeting Picasso, Olga had performed in numerous
productions starting with Diaghilev's first independent season.
Olga Khoholova met the young artist in the year nineteen-hundred
and seventeen. She had been a member of Diaghilev's ballet, and
Picasso was immediately inspired to compose for that medium. The
ballet in which Picasso first commissioned was called "Parade"
by Jean Cocteau. Cubist in style, in costumes and set design, the
Spaniard's affection for Cubism was abating. During this time in
his portraits, Picasso was already entering a neoclassical style.
This new direction in output, caused many critics to call Cubism
a "passing experiment." Yet, what the critics did not
realize was the artist's own ability to change execution at will,
and he ability to conquer any medium he so choose.
After the ballet season was over, Olga sat for the young artist
in a series of portraits that captured his "neoclassical"
style at its height. Absent were any remnants of Cubism and the
previous style he spent a decade fostering and neutering with George
Braque. The remaining years together, Picasso had increasing yearning
to compose in the classical style. He painted numerous picture after
picture of Olga, yet the artist also looked towards their first
child Paulo, as well other famous celebrities of the times such
as composer Igor Stravinsky for models in his works. The Neoclassical
style dominated Picasso's output, but one important work, painted
during this period, was undisputedly Cubism at its best. "Three
Musicians," painted in 1921, was a cultivation of his entire
cubist career diffused into one work. Picasso had already become
a master artist and his treatment in "Three Musicians"
was a powerful experiment in simple planes and color.
By the year 1925, the Spaniard and his beloved wife were at an impasse.
On summer vacation in1922, Olga became seriously ill. Although a
full recovery came about several months later, their romantic intimacy
was at an end.
Marie-Therese Walter was Picasso's second companion. During their
mysterious liaison together, the artist emerged himself into the
Surrealist movement. It should aforementioned that Ms. Walter coexisted
with Olga for nearly eight years. The formal separation between
the artist and his former wife was not official until 1935. Records
indicate, that Ms. Walter was barely a teen when her presence showed
up in the artist's works. One of the first phases of the Spaniard's
Surrealist attempt, was coined the "monster period." This
new form of expression, started in 1929, was Picasso's rebellion
against the "triumph of barbarism." These images as a
whole, demonstrate the artist's feeling against the outbreak of
organized inhumanity that was overtly entering Europe. Instead of
beauty and grace of the neoclassical-classical style, which featured
some meticulous rendering of portraits, Picasso chose horrific monstrous
forms. His images during this period shocked the viewer with grotesque
figures and left its audience dumbfounded looking for an explanation.
One work exemplifying this period was the "Seated Bather,"
painted in 1930. With Picasso's increasing admiration for the Surrealism
movement, and his own contributions to the genre, the artist laid
down his brush for a pen. From 1935-1936, the artist became a poet.
The cultivation of this labor was a Collections of poems that were
published in Cahiers d'Art (1935) and in La Gaceta de Arte (1936,
Tenerife).
Dora Maar was an acclaimed artist in her own right. Picasso's involvement
with his then new lover transition even in his works. Suddenly,
The blonde "muse," Ms. Walter, was replaced in several
works with a dark-haired one. Eventually, both women dominated Picasso's
works in 1936 as if they were in some sort of rivalry. In the end,
the Spaniard chose Dora Maar as his new companion and left Marie-Thérèse
Walter and his daughter Maya. Ms. Maar's famed relationship with
the artist remains to this day her involvement that led to, arguably
his best work, "Guernica."
In 1937, Picasso was commissioned to design a mural for the Spanish
Pavilion at the international exposition in Paris, France. However,
the artist was at a gasp for inspiration and chose to put the project
off. It was not until April 26, 1937, that Picasso found his inspiration.
His native homeland of Spain always had a special place in his heart.
Although he never returned after Spain fell to a dictatorship in
1934, the Spaniard never dropped his citizenship. Unarmed and defenseless,
the small town of Guernica was ravaged by the new German air force.
Determined and ready, Picasso had his subject and was willing to
embark on a mural of enormous dimensions, and its name was "Guernica."
Picasso created this piece in an amazingly short period of time.
Three months later and a canvas measured at an astounding 11'6"
by 25'6," the work was completed Many critics, rightfully so,
consider "Guernica" the pinnacle of Picasso's achievement
in art. Before nor after, did Picasso create a work of such caliber.
Not only was Dora Maar Picasso's lover but her involvement in the
process of "Guernica" is legendary. She meticulously photographed
the stages from start to finish of this masterpiece and her photos
of the famed work are universally used in textbooks, print, and
publications around the world to this day. Ms. Maar's attention
to Picasso's greatest work has catalogued all of the artist's preliminary
sketches to even several stages of completion on the work itself.
Her work had been an invaluable effort that chronicles one of the
most famous pieces of the twentieth century art.
The next female in Picasso's life was also the only one with the
spirit to leave him. Francoise Gilot was her name and they met in
May 1943. Also a painter, Ms. Gilot bore Picasso with two children
Claude and Paloma. Gilot, being a painter, relied heavy on Picasso's
influence and ready advice. While Picasso was devoting a series
of paintings and drawings after her, Francoise also reproduced portraits
of himself. As an Artist, Ms. Gilot was not interested in realistic
or naturalistic interpretation of nature. Her own personal preference
of art diffused into Picasso's own. One work defining Picasso's
influence under Francoise is "Massacre in Korea," completed
in 1951. Realizing that her career was on hold, and raising of two
children by herself, 1955 Francoise Gilot with her two children
left Picasso.
Jacqueline Rogue entered Picasso's life in the during the nineteen
fifties. Her influence was that of total devoution and unconditional
love. She became Picasso's caretaker and secretary. Never challenging
his views or doubting his work, Jacqueline Rogue kept the aging
artist alive for another twenty years. His first project after there
courtship was variations on past masters. These studies became Picasso's
obsession in the fifties. The confident artist chose works by Diego
Velázquez , Gustave Courbet, Eugène Delacroix , and
Édouard Manet for reinterpretation. Unsatisfied with one
stand alone piece, Picasso exhausted endless possibilities of a
single work. For example, "Women of Algiers," originally
painted by Delacroix, was painted in a cycle of fifteen paintings.
For an exhibition in Avignon, Picasso, at age 90, produced one his
most expeditious series of paintings ever. Between January 5, 1969
through February 2, 1970, the assiduous artist created one-hundred
and sixty-five new paintings. Analyzing the output in numbers, with
such an output, every fifty-two hours a new work was created. Of
course, with the incredible time-table in which Picasso produced
this last series marked an economical and rapid execution in the
depiction of its subjects. Yet all these new pieces, as with similar
past series, compliment one another in as a whole. The economy of
form, the rapid application of brush, the lack of preliminary sketches,
give the viewer an unrestrained glance of the image. Meticulous
attention to nature and real life are absent from the pieces as
the images take shape only as Picasso can fathom them. To contrast
these remarkable and prodigious output of paintings, Picasso composed
fifty-five drawings. These images, during the same period, recall
Picasso's fascination with eroticism some thirty years previous.
Subjects vary from a lonely women, couples love-making, to even
a reoccurring Musketeer.
Picasso's love interests catalogued and dissected into periods enhances
and increases the appreciation of the genus of the artist. In 1973,
Picasso suffered an attack of Influenza and slowly recovered. After
that bout, the celebrated artist continued to produce works, yet
suffered shortness of breath. A heart specialist arrived at his
villa and the prognosis was not good. The end was near for Picasso,
but the strong Spaniard had no idea it was looming over him. On
April 8, 1973 Pablo Ruiz Picasso died in his bed. He was buried
in his garden at château de Vauvenargues. Thirteen years later,
his last wife Jacqueline joined him in the garden from a suicide.
Buried together, these lovers are reunited. The importance of Picasso's
works are undenibale. He claimed master to the definition of the
word "Artist." His legacy will overshadow and inspire
artists and patrons of the arts for years to come.
